Hahaha! I haven't had a chance to ask her about it, but from what my brother says it is more of a fear of death thing. She just wants to think that she and her loved ones will somehow continue to exist after death.

I had a friend who claimed to be atheist and said the same thing. She believed there was a place to go to after death where "everything would be OK", I believe were her words. It is strange how even hardened skeptics can't seem to let go of that happy place in the clouds.

And so, when in another thread someone asked whether if religion could be abolished overnight what would happen?, the answer is that as long as some of us can't handle the idea of death, there will be religion of some sort.

At its core, atheism just deals with the question of belief in deities. Not unicorns, the Loch Ness monster, ghosts, telepathy, reincarnation or any of the multitude of other supernatural beliefs. For that, try skepticism. :)

Herd immunity is what a good vaccination campaign strives to achieve. In order for it to be effective, it needs to reach a point where most or all of the herd is immunized. Of course the anti-vaccers mess this up by refusing to get their child vaccinated, thus the herd is compromised : )